Aspirin is the most basic and widely used pain reliever in history. Most people with either a headache or fever take aspirin first and call the doctor second. Hundreds of millions of
people depend on aspirin above all other drugs for basic pain relief.

History of the Invention

What Did People Do Before?

By 1000 B.C., people living in countries with either willow or silver birch trees had
learned that the ground bark of either tree relieved minor pain. People chewed on the bark or
ground it into a pain-relieving tea. It worked, but relief came slowly.

How Was Aspirin Invented?

The tidy office of chemist Charles Gerhardt in Paris was filled with the pungent smells
of stacked compounds and chemicals stored in boxes and bottles on the shelves lining the
walls. In June 1851, a doctor and acquaintance, Maurice Duphan, entered with a problem.
Ordering patients in pain to “chew on tree bark” sounded antiquated. A “modern” doctor
needed a modern-sounding and stronger pain reliever to prescribe.

Gerhardt realized that there wasn’t anything else to prescribe for minor pain. Intrigued,
he decided to try to create a “strong, modern pain reliever,” even though he had no idea of
how to start his quest.

Two days later Gerhardt was jolted awake in the middle of the night by a beautifully
simple idea: Start with what already worked, and make it better.

Chemists already knew that the substance in willow bark that actually blocked pain
was an acid, salicylic acid. However, pure salicylic acid also created terrible mouth and

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